When the Flowers Bloom
by Illusive Susurration
Summary: Ai, have you the memories again, child?"
1. Chapter 1

_ Prologue _

_Into the Rose Lands _

_ "Ai, is something the matter, child?" _

_ In perpetual twilight, a scarlet veil of changeless dusk, Ai watches the Moon flowers open. Ai dares to touch the flower's silky white petals. Ai dares to breath in the bouquet's subtle scent. But, Ai shouldn't do such things. Ai shouldn't want the flowers. _

_ "Ai, dear, what ever could be so troubling?" _

_Her soft lustrous lower lip quivers. Emotion never reaches those eyes, her eyes, red like rubies, beautiful yet lifeless treasures. A few strains of loose hair gently brush across her fair skin. _

_ "Nothing is the matter, Grandmother. The flowers are blooming." _

_ "Oh, Ai, the flowers are always madly blooming." _

_ "Yes, Grandmother, I suppose they are."_

_ "Isn't that what you wanted, Ai?" _

_ "Yes, I suppose it is." _

"_Such a strange child, really what a strange child you are Ai." _

_Ai is Ai _

_ Her delicate mouth gasps, repeatedly. She hides her face in the gloaming's red rimmed grass. She, she is Ai. The fair child's body quakes, her little body, so fragile and small. Ai is Ai. The folds of her little sailor dress shift closer to the flowers. Ai is love. Ai is hate. Her long hair rests beside her with such beauty it always seems it own entity. She sighs. Ai, Ai is Jigoku Shojo. _

_"Ai, have you memories again, child?" _

_ "Yes, Grandmother, I suppose so." _


	2. To Kill the Lilly Buds

_One_

_To Kill the Lily Buds_

"Ai." The woman smiled, her warm attentive would have been a very attractive woman in youth but now her face had fallen, the effects of stress and work. However, when she would smile the furrows and the grooves would smooth and Ai saw love. Ai saw love from all of them although Mama was by far the most open with her affections. "Are you feeling alright, Princess Ai?" Another grizzled woman moved melodically across the wooden floorboards carrying a star shaped tray of citruses, " You'll disillusion her. Stop calling that child princess, Hina." "Mother,", the sunsets across the little oxbow lake near the house and the room dissolves into a blushing color, "What is there to disillusion? Ai is my princess, the princess of the Enma family. Now, come along, precious bosom, lets greet your Father."

"Do you like the flowers, Ai?" The fair girl's head bobs, unsurely, as her eyes stay fixed on the florets. Her Mother prances downwards on the sloping field, along the tall hushed grasses. Ai utters a small little breath as a single violet bud pulses, beating in the wind. Ai moves to cradle the bud in her hand only to find it unfold like vibrant magic. "Its just bloomed. Do you like the irises?" The little girl screeched to find a young boy kneeling parallel to her. The boy also screams when she does, "I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you." Ai stares up at him as her eyes shake. Because, her eyes shook then before they were taken. Her eyes were like caramel orbs drowned in their innocence and wonder. Being a bright little boy, he sees these eyes. He sees and gawks at these eyes. The little girl blinks and covers her face with her long ivory sleeve. She moves backwards slightly yet too slightly. The little fair girl feels her hand slide over the misty flower beds. She feels her little legs comply with her arm and she feels herself falling. She feels herself falling slowly. She senses the air embrace her and the wind hug closer to her small young frame. Suddenly, she believes that she can see herself. She can see her little fair body, rolling, careening down the hillside. She sees the boy, his arm extended. She reaches her puny arm out to meet his grasp to no avail. Because, she knows that she wouldn't be able to reach. She knows that she is too far gone.

"Ai! Ai!" Her Mother wails crazily beside Ai as tears slowly sail down her face. She rises her head, her hair adhered to her face, to see a boy, a little boy. She has lost her smile, now. Her face shrouded in pain and hatred. "What is the meaning of this! What is the meaning of this! Sentarou! Princess Ai! Princess Ai!"

"Your daughter was very lucky, unbelievably lucky, Mrs. Enma. Any other girl her age would have died from a fall like that; however, she has no major injuries." Hina sat with her head upon her child's chest, her breathing strained. The Father, Ken, rose to thank and greet the doctor. "Juro.", he bowed, staidly. "We're very lucky that you were able to look after the dear, Juro." The family's hoary grandmother doddered past the old man with a persistent scowl, "Hina, bringing the child up to such a dangerous place." The senior poured a small amount of cool water over the child's forehead from a crystal cup. The doctor nodded, stiffly. In the silence, Hina, could feel it. She could feel Ai's faint fast beating heart. _I'll never put princess Ai in danger again, never. _Ai's heartbeat paced on, quietly, soft like the child herself. "Its because she is a miracle, my princess Ai. She is a miracle and she is mine, all mine. God won't allow my princess to be taken. God looks after all little princesses." Hina moved her hands over her child's stomach. "Mama?" The doctor bowed again graciously, passing a silent glance at the Enma's Grandmother. "Hina, she's been through a lot. Let her rest."

Upon the Enma's doorstep stands two men, the first withered in middle age and sickness and the second a boy with dark hair and tawny skin. The fair young ailing girl has a sharp inhale at their sight. "Nobu.", a more nonchalant greeting from the Father. The Mother races back to the daughter taking her small gasp for fear. "You! How dare you parade indifferently onto our doorstep!" "Hina", the Father's tone is sharp, "Don't speak to Nobu's son in such a manner." The man sighs defeatedly, "Ken, the boy wishes to apologize to your daughter." He is such a young boy, the youngest of his brothers who moved out of the house years prior . The boy is too young for his Father just as his Mother had been to young for his Father. He bows his head, revealing a short tail of hair on the back of his neck. "I apologize Miss Ai-kun." Waves of discomfort and unrest radiate from the child's Mother, silently repeating her oath to her Princess. The boy moves closer slightly, causing Hina to reach for her daughter, in some way to assure that he had not again took her. "Very well. Ai accepts your apology.", she answers in a abrasive tone.

"Hina, let the child speak for herself. If she didn't die from the fall then she might very well die of suffocation."

"The child, Mother, is afraid! He frightens her, Mother! I won't put her through this."

The Gran shakes her head, "Hina, speaking of the child's fears as if they were your own." She moves now, stiffly, from the child with the intent of addressing her Mother perched against the screen of the shoin-zukuri styled abode. "Her fears are my fears, Mother!" "What's your name?", Ai inquired gently not above a whisper to the young boy. He rose his head surprised at the girl, this being the first time he had heard her voice. What a subtle voice it was, that a breeze should lose it . "Sentarou.", he smiled. "Sentarou does not scare Ai." The little boy laughs, a laugh seemingly too mature for his age. Simultaneously, the Grandmother laughs as well, a brief and cracked laugh. Ai's eyes go wide and she sniffs. "Ai, does it hurt?", the Father asks. She shakes her head quickly, "Sentarou liked the lilies. But, I crushed them." Another amused laugh, "Will you plant more with me in the spring, Ai?"

"Ai?


End file.
